NEW ORLEANS - Tolls on the Crescent City Connection will continue for another 20 years after elections officials counted and certified final results Tuesday from the highly contested Nov. 6 referendum.

The Times-Picayune reports approval of the extension hung on an eight-vote margin until Tuesday, when the final difference rose to 16 votes after officials counted 32 military and overseas ballots.

More than 308,000 ballots were cast by voters in New Orleans and in Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes.

The two spans of the Crescent City Connection tie New Orleans' downtown area to the Algiers neighborhood on the west bank of the Mississippi River.